[ad_1]
Publicis, the third-largest advertising group in the world in terms of revenue, announced Sunday that it has acquired Epsilon, a digital marketing agency, from Alliance Data Systems, for $ 4.4 billion, to speed up the development of data badysis.
This is the largest acquisition by Publicis, which said it would pay a net purchase price of $ 3.95 billion after "tax increases". This represents a multiple of 8.2 times the multiple of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 2018.
"When you look at the kind of challenges our customers face in a data-driven and digital world, it's obvious that businesses like us need to be bold," said President and Chief Executive Officer. direction of Publicis, Arthur Sadoun.
Like its competitors WPP and Omnicom, Publicis is under pressure because online platforms such as Facebook and Google have changed the conventional intermediary agency model and dominated digital advertising. New competitors also emerged in the form of professional services companies such as Accenture, which announced last week its intention to acquire Cirruseo, a French cloud consulting company.
In the past, Publicis announced acquisitions in the fields of data, dynamic creativity and digital transformation, with a view to transforming its business model into a single platform. The Epsilon agreement follows the acquisition in 2014 of the Sapient digital and technological network to increase its technological firepower.
Epsilon provides a range of services, including loyalty programs, email marketing, and consumer data collection for transactions, location and web activity.
Mr. Sadoun said, "The new market imperative is to offer large-scale personalized experiences. There is no way for our customers to continue to grow and reduce costs if they can not provide this in their own markets. "
He added that Publicis was interested in buying Epsilon for years. This had been part of the discussions around the deal since December and had eliminated competition from private equity firms and other strategic buyers. "We are buying a leader in data badytics that can uniquely enrich and leverage proprietary data," he added.
In 2018, Epsilon generated net revenues of $ 1.9 billion, 97% of which in the United States and employs approximately 9,000 people worldwide.
Bankers from Citigroup, JPMorgan and BNP Paribas informed Publicis of the transaction.
The French group is expected to publish Wednesday its results for the first quarter of 2019.
Source link
